Reunion Dalhousie

This is an exciting post and very close to my heart. It was one of the best holidays we ever had. I had this photo as my profile pic and everyone commented on it saying it looks like we are attending a Bollywood wedding 🙂 To be honest it was far from that but again very close to Bollywood, as close as we mere Indian public can get to it.

Let me break the suspense, it was a long awaited, many years’ plan of our school girls reunion at Dalhousie, coming real!

Ooo La La, 💃💃💃this is just the beginning, hold your breath till the story unfolds. My Childhood friend’s sister & brother in law have an amazing property on the hills of Dalhousie and she has been suggesting we all have one class reunion there. Getting dates which has to match up to most of the girls & then also to the availability of the venue, including the season to visit our hill station was a mind boggling challenge for my little friend. Hats off to her, she never once lost her cool with this bunch of incorrigible school girls. I or rather We, truly salute her!

I am just taking the liberty to mention here that my friend’s sister is family to Gauri Khan. That’s how I had the good fortune of tagging along with her to "Mannat" during one of our first reunions in Mumbai. Wo that means a lot!! We both were very well received and hosted by Gauri, who had just returned from a trip abroad but never expressed any kind of fatigue or jet lag to us, rather she was extra sweet to have us over for breakfast. I seriously live to that day till date, it holds a special place in my heart. I feel privileged & thank my friend for the same. Now we were going to be guests at this friends' sister’s house in Dalhousie, I was already super excited.

The expedition starts, A convoy of 14 girls merged from different parts of the country & outside the country at New Delhi railway station. It was overwhelming to meet some friends after 3 decades or more, trying to first physically scan each other and giving a sign of approval that you haven’t changed much since school, what a blatant lie, but we were happy to say & hear that. We got into different coaches, 4-5 in one coach. trying our best to negotiate with our co passengers to exchange seats so that we all can sit as close to each other, most of them obliged with sleepy frowning faces but couldn’t say “no”as we told them we were long lost friends and had to catch up during this train ride. Then the pleasure of sharing home packed food in the train was a nostalgic feeling bringing back memories of my college days. We boarded the train at 9:00pm and we were to get down at 6:00 am at Pathankot. We kept ourselves awake pretty late into the night, literally disturbing all the co passengers, giggling away like silly school girls on a high, until one gentleman begged us to keep quiet & switch off all the lights and maintain silence for a few minutes so that his toddler can dose off.

We switched off with a sigh, only to wake up with all our alarms going off simultaneously at 5:30am. The train would stop just for 2 minutes in Pathankot and we had to be ready with our luggage standing next to the doors. We got a very warm welcome by a military friend who was extra hospitable & Super meticulous in hosting us in his well decorated house with a sumptuous breakfast. Refreshed from our previous nights journey & all set for the drive uphill. Fascinated with the military life up there, we had some hard core discussions and gained knowledge on how we have these brave men in our frontline protecting our country. Felt ever grateful to our service personnels & proud to be an Indian. Discussed about the movie “Uri”, how realistic it actually was & such a wonderfully made movie. Thanked our host profusely & boarded the 3 SUV’s which stood ready for us to continue..

We passed through the winding roads, the beautiful picturesque hills & valleys, the tribes, the “pahadi” folks, the road side stalls, were like a breath of fresh air, serene, beautiful and pure, away from the city buzz. The air got cooler as we gained height & finally reached Dalhousie late in the afternoon after a good 5 hour drive. We were more than happy to drive into this plush resort like cottage to be received by our wonderful hosts. This was going to be home for the coming week & create lifetime memories for us.

Our hostess, Neeru Didi, was a very warm charming & super charged older sister to all of us. And our host, Jijaji, the only male amongst this army of beauties, sure felt like the King Bee, surrounded by the beautiful damsels, was an extraordinarily jovial & high spirited young man. My friend was literally a” Badhai Ho” kid. She was 17 yrs younger than her youngest of her 3 siblings. Didi says, the 3 of the siblings were so embarrassed when she was born that they stopped going to school/college for couple of months. Our hosts, although much older than us were much fitter physically & extremely young at heart. We were the third set of guests in this season for them, the first set being 12 friends, then the second group of 17 & here we were now 14, literally with one day or half a day gap between the groups. Just enough to prepare the rooms and get rolling.The rooms were perfectly poised to compete any 7 star resort with a 100 star love & affection I would say. The villa was beautifully decorated, partly English Victorian & partly contemporary. There was an attic in one of the bedrooms which felt like the one we read in Famous five or Nancy Drew was a super exciting place to be. And then there was…. pics of ShahRukh Khan on several walls, ahhha…

Even though I would love to go on and describe about each & every day of ours in Dalhousie, it will be a super long post so let me stick to the highlights. The winding roads to the little bazaar, with hot momos & maggie being served on the roadside carts, to the roasted corn, sneakily having pain puri, ogling over the woolens, was sheer delight. One evening we had the Bon Fire night, with each one dancing singing & enjoying the beautiful misty chill weather, with barbecue, antakshri, dumb charades & fighting over it like little kids, showing full team spirit. With Jijaji not sparing any opportunity to crack his jokes and leave us all in splits. Talking about politics starting from Nehru, Indira Gandhi to current situations of Kashmir pandits, the topics were vast & varied as we all sat under a clear cool sky filled with a billion stars,with the bon fire in the center, blank, nothing to think, nothing to worry for tomorrow. All of us, were simple, pure, carefree birds, home away from home.This is the moment you would want to hold on for eternity, just Be.

Didi & Jijaji took such good care of us with every minute detail planned & organized to the T. Morning tea, breakfast, lunch, dinner meticulously planned keeping in mind, each ones dietary restrictions. So much to learn from these two noble souls, wrapping us with their love and affection within no time, weaving bonds and relationships to last a lifetime, creating memories, instilling inner peace, inner fulfillment, giving us moments to hold on, to cherish- forever. Simply beautiful, simply Bliss.

Here we were also up & close to Bollywood. We were all urging to hear the SRK & Gauri courtship stories from Jijai,(uncle to Gauri) who was instrumental in making their marriage happen.The struggle days of SRK, his first movie, his success, his personal upright being, his depth of knowledge, to the current King Khan was like a fairy tale unfold in front of a group of kindergarten kids. With that came up topics of many other hero heroines, gossips, myths & the truths. As we got chill with the temperature dipping down and called it a day, we all felt connected & a part of the Bollywood family, as if we understood that they are only humane, flesh & blood like any of us, down to earth with a mind of their own.

We went for a beautiful trek one day at Kala top which was simply out of the world,a difficult trek which we made it with Jijaji leading the way, encouraging us that we can make it to our goal, just to believe in ourselves. Another day we experienced ”lychee” sized hail storm on the hills and there was this particular day where we had a Saree day!! It was decided everyone would carry a shade of pink color Saree! All decked up and ready for the photoshoot, solo & group, was the peak of splurging into unlimited fun. Spirits were high, with the pink of health amongst the friends, Didi & Jijaji, their whole staff who had by now become friends, serving us to make our stay the most comfortable ever. Hats off to their energy & spirit!! I bow unto them.

So here I am draped in a shaded pink chiffon Banarasi Saree which has a beautiful fall. Banarasi's are timeless drapes which can lift your mood to a new level altogether and with so much love and warmth around you, there is no second opinions about it. It was a whole lot of sweet painful goodbyes as we dispersed, carrying a bagful of memories to last a lifetime with a special place for Didi & Jijaji in our hearts.

Goodbyes are always difficult ....

Au Revoir

❤️❤️❤️